King David & Uriah's Wife Series

KING DAVID AND URIAH’S WIFE

Matt 1:6 (p 681) December 16, 2012

INTRODUCTION:

I was watching this documentary about Lincoln’s assassination the other day and they interviewed some of the elderly members of John Wilkes Booth’s family…

One of them was his 97 year old great niece…and she talked about the part that when she was young there was an unspoken law that your did not mention his name or bring up that subject in conversation…Everyone knew…everyone felt a sense of pain and shame…But “God help you if you mentioned it!!!.

Matthew has already mentioned the name Tamar, who dressed as a prostitute so she could fool her father-in-law Judah into having sex…she got pregnant through this incestuous relationship...she would give birth to Perez…He’s listed in the Messianic line…

Matthew has no problem writing the name Rahab, whose occupation was a prostitute….she applied her trade in Jericho until by faith she rescued some Israel spies…

Matthew writes the name Ruth with no problem….a descendent of lot…(though his daughters bring a drunken deception)…she an unbeliever and a gentile…but…when he comes to verse 6 he writes…”and Jesse the father of King David….David was the father of Solomon, whose mother had been Uriah’s wife.”

“Whose mother had been Uriah’s wife?”

Did Matthew the genealogists of the messianic line through Mary forget her name? Has Bathsheba just slipped his mind?

Hardly…”One commentator writes…Her sin was so terrible that Matthew blushed at the thought of even mentioning her name…

Bathsheba is the woman David committed adultery with…she became pregnant by David…so David had her husband killed. She then married the man who killed her husband Uriah.

I don’t know….my first thought is…we’re not talking about equals here…at least in David’s time...He’s the King…she’s a woman…King’s usually gets what they want…and if you don’t comply…”it’s off with your head!!! Or at least…serious consequences.

You remember the book of Esther? The King is named Xerxes, he wants to show off his Queen’s beauty...she tells him “No”…the results according to Esther 1:19 “She can never again enter the King’s presence…her throne will be given to another…eventually Esther.” But could Bathsheba have said “No?” Yes…even if it were life and death she could have said “NO”.

And LuAnn my office manager, who is a woman said, “Was her roof the only place she had to bath…didn’t she know the palace allowed you to see her?” UHHHH…I would think…”yes”

Why does Matthew not write her name? Shame …protection for Bathsheba? Other reasons? I don’t know…but she is included in the messianic line…let’s look at the story.

I SPRING HAS SPRUNG

2 Samuel 11: 1-5 (p 221)

If you look at the early chapters of 2 Samuel they are filled with David’s victories…

David’s victories over the 1st Kings House, Saul it lasted a long long line…David’s house grew stronger and stronger…David’s reclamation of Jerusalem…David defeats the Philistines of Jerusalem…(Goliath’s crowd)…David brings the Ark of the Covenant back to the temple in the Holy City.

In fact chapter 8 is entitled…”David’s victories towards the end it says “The Lord gave David victory wherever he went” ( v 11) David reigned over all Israel doing what was just and right for all his people” (v 12)…and chapter 9 in 2 Samuel is the “feel good….tear jerking grab your heart chapter in the old testament…

David remembers his best friend Jonathon (Saul’s son) and he says…is there anyone left in this family that I can show my love for Jonathan to?...and Jonathon has a crippled son…name “Mephibosheth” and David brings him and his family into the palace and cares for them as his own…yeah…see!!!)

In Chapter 10…David defeats the biggest enemy of the Israelites…the Ammonites (also descendants of Lot...through his youngest daughter…yes, he was drunk that time as well)

So in chapter 11 when spring rolls around…when it’s time to get back in the fight…David…Uhhh, ‘rests” “He retires from the fight”

David doesn’t go out to war…He sends Joab, his general out to fight for him…They destroy the enemy…but David stayed in Jerusalem.

It’d be a little like me thinking…”Yeah I really don’t need to do any ministry anymore…I’ll let Jeff and the others take care of the lost and hurting.”

I’m afraid many times “spring has sprung” for way too many Christians!!! Way too many of us “get tired of the fight.” Instead of doing Battle, with our army…some of us leading the army…we go up on the rooftop, we find a vantage point where we can oversee things…and we “retire” spiritually from the battle…instead of…

“Going and making disciples as Jesus commissioned us to do in Matt 28. We “remain in Jerusalem” expecting that if we “work in the church, do our duty…take care of the home folk…lost people will come to us.”

Let me tell you what lurks for those who think like this…